Author's Note: I think I'm a bit better at shorter stories than longer ones (which I really don't have patience for). This story will probably be only four chapters long.

Disclaimer: I own nothing Sonic Related, period!

In this world, it has been widely accepted that life is chaotic. Few things we do are ever set in stone, and the choices we make affect not only ourselves, but those around us as well. The smallest pebble can cause a rockslide, and, in the same way, what we do can change things drastically the world over.

Life is chaotic, this is undeniable, but it also ordered in that chaos. There is a rhyme and reason to it that even the greatest of minds have not been able to explain, but it exists never the less. It is as if life is heading toward an inevitable goal we can not begin to comprehend, but that is a discussion best left for another time.

Now, I will tell you a story. A story of an end set in the void of space. A story of a steel haven known as A.R.K.. A story of a pure soul and a tormented shadow. A story of sorrow and sadness and hope. A story not only of the chaos of life, but also the unsettling order it has.

Space Colony A.R.K. 50 years ago

Ruby red eyes carefully observed the dark console laid out before him, tapping a few keys to start the machine with a low hum. Blank screens blipped to life, showing it's user the scenes he wanted to view.

Shadow studied the live footage images of the Biolizard before him with a keen intensity, as if the secret of life itself could be gleamed from this affront to nature. He had some things he wanted to work through, and, despite the contempt he felt towards it, he had found that something about the Biolizard, either by proximity or visually observing it, always put him in a clearer state of mind.

The Biolizard was currently settled in one of the liquid energy channels that ran through it's home in the core of the A.R.K.. The beast seemed to have only two modes of operating either being listless or, fortunately only on rare occasions, excessively aggressive on a dangerous scale.

The eyeless head of the Biolizard slowly moved so that the two pipes that ran to where its eyes would be stared straight at the monitor Shadow was observing it through.

Shadow retuned its stare for a few minutes before shifting his gaze to another screen, this on showing the Biolizard's tail end. Again, slowly, it shifted it long ungainly neck to look at the same monitor, this time with an unmistakable aura of one smiling as if to say, 'I see you.'

Shadow couldn't honestly say he was surprise. The Biolizard was much smarter than most people believed, even if it was a more predatory intelligence, and both he and the creature could practically feel each other through their shared connection to chaos energy. The Biolizard felt like a gravity well, drawing massive amounts of power from the air around it, but not truly producing it himself. Even through hundreds of feet of steel separating them Shadow could still feel its tug.

'I won't end up like you, I won't end up as some lab rat to be poked and prodded and studied,' Shadow thought towards the abomination.

Again the Biolizard somehow affected an aura of smiling. This time, Shadow had the chilling feeling he could here a reply whisper, 'Of course you will.'

The soft sound of the sliding doors opening knocked him out of his trance. He turned around to see Maria standing in the doorway, smiling and panting slightly.

"I knew I'd find you here Shadow," she said between breaths.

Shadow put all dark thoughts to the back of his mind as he adopted a teasing smile. "And how, pray tell, did you know that?"

Maria, having quickly caught her second wind, pasted a similar expression. "After living with you for three years, of course I know all your regular haunts."

Shadow was glad she didn't pry, he wasn't quite ready to share his worries to her quite yet. "Well, did you just come here to show that you could find me, or is there some other reason?"

Her blue eyes positively twinkled in a way that he always had loved. "There something I want you to see." With that she grabbed him by the arm and practically dragged him out of the room.

How we choose to live today, affects our tomorrow.